“Say not at all, grandfather. Let us not imagine such a thing, lest it take the heart out of us,” and she shuddered.
Seti looked at her keenly for a moment. She suddenly drew herself up as she sat, tossed away with both hands the heavy tresses that had fallen over her face, and looked up with wide-open eyes into his. He laid his hand tenderly on her head, and sighed before saying:
“It is as you say. We must hope for the best if we would escape the worst. Aleph the Chaldean is a living prisoner somewhere, and we must find and release him as soon as possible. So I must go.”
“Take Miriam and me as active, though invisible, partners in this matter, dear grandfather,” pleaded Rachel. “It is necessary for us if not for you. We cannot sit here and wait, and wait, with folded hands till somebody brings us word of what others are doing, or trying to do. It would kill us. We have kept ourselves alive thus far only by praying: now we must have something to do to help our praying. You see how the case stands with me—it is a necessity.”
“But what can you do?”
“We can at least try to do in some womanly ways. This will be a relief to us. You are working by means of the famous University; perhaps we can work quite as effectively by a humbler class of agents. At least we can try: and our thinking and planning may save us if they do not save him. In my father’s absence I want your approval.”
“I think you are right,” said the priest slowly. “So be it, then. It may be that your womanly devisings will be the first to penetrate the mystery. I shall not complain if it prove so.”
Seti kissed her and departed, saying to himself, “Some trees are killed by decapitation, but this tree becomes thriftier and fairer than ever.”
Was it decapitation? Well, if it was not that, it was something that marvellously resembled it. Seti was an experienced man, and his faculty of insight was great: and I would sooner take his judgment in the matter than that of most. He thought the trial that had befallen his granddaughter terribly severe. I think the same. I should be sorry to have that stroke repeated. Nobly as the first blow has been borne, I could not answer for a second. There are limits to successful pruning. A plant may be decapitated once too often. Seti thought so too, and he carried away with him a greater burden than he brought; for now he understood that the question was no longer how to save Aleph, but how to save Aleph and Rachel.